


Anything But Wallflower

by Agirlwhoreadstheclassics



Category: We Are The Tigers - Allen
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Angst, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2020-12-01 20:11:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20885672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agirlwhoreadstheclassics/pseuds/Agirlwhoreadstheclassics
Summary: This is a We Are The Tigers Everybody lives AU!! The squad goes to school at Boston University. This AU is set four years after We Are The Tigers.GradesRiley –SeniorCairo- SeinorKate- JuniorFarrah- FreshmanReese- JuniorMattie- FreshmanEva- FreshmanAnnleigh- SophomoreClark- SophomoreMajorsReese- Early Childhood Education (BA)Chess- Psychology (BS)Mattie- Biology (BS)Kate- English (BA)Farrah- Communication BARiley- Management Major, BS (Marketing Concentration) Dance MinorCairo-Political Science, BAEva- Environmental Sciences, BSAnnleigh- History (BA)Clark- Computer Science (BS)





	1. Chapter one

“Hey Cairo! You were already gone when I woke up this morning. Remind me why you take a class before ten AM again? Anyway, I love you see you at lunch and practice later.” Riley hung up her phone and looked around the apartment. The place really felt empty without Cairo here, and as much as she liked the quiet, she wished that her girlfriend was here so they could talk. After everything, the mess and the drama of high school the two of them made it work as a couple. Where people shocked? Maybe but Riley didn’t care what other people thought. In Riley’s mind, the two of them were a perfect match from the time they were young the two of them were always best friends. Riley was the first one to make a move because she didn’t want anyone else to date Cairo. She loved her and that was all that mattered in her mind.  
  
They were going on four years, having started dating just after the start of Freshman year, the homecoming game to be exact was when Riley asked and shared her feelings with Cairo. Cairo made Riley a better person, and she had become stronger since the two of them started being more than friends. Riley was messy she knew this, and yet mess and all Cairo loved her unconditionally. Riley had always been into both men and women dating both genders. Being openly Bi sexual and staying true to herself with no apologizes was the kind of person she was, and Cai was the same way. Even more reason the two of them were a perfect match for each other.  
  
Riley picked up her phone and sent a text to the girls just to make sure they were all on for having lunch between classes. They had lunch a lot it was their way of bonding both as a team and as a group of girls who had a lot of deep history.  
To: Eva, Reese, Kate, Farrah, Annleigh, Matti, Cairo, and Chess  
From: Riley  
  
Hey, girls! Just checking that we’re having lunch today, as is the tradition on the first day of school every year. I’ll meet everyone at 12:30 in the Cafeteria?  
  
The fact that everyone left hearts meant that they would all be there. Riley was the captain, but she was also a senior in her last year before she went off to whatever job she could grab. She had dreams of something in the fashion marketing area, but whatever marketing job she could get and hopefully teaching dance hoping to open her own studio someday. Everyone was so busy now that it was hard to find the time to see each other.   
  
To: Riley  
From: Cairo 

My love I just got your message. I can’t help that this is an 8 AM class it was the only section opened when I registered. I’ll see you later! I love you.  
  
Riley read the message and smiled. Cairo made her so happy and she never wanted these feeling of happiness to end.  
  
****  
Kate woke up hoping she hadn’t missed Chess on her last first day of undergrad. They would be together next year with Kate a year younger and Chess going on for Grad school. Looking at the time Kate saw that Chess should just now be leaving and so she sprang up and headed to the living room. “Chess!!!! Happy last first day undergrad!!! I love you and I’m so proud of you.” Kate was bouncing and just so happy Chess had made it to her last year of undergrad.  
  
“Kate my darling did you make this?” Chess looked at her and back to the table smiling. Her undergrad had been a struggle because she was a perfectionist and was still dealing with the fact that she needed pills to feel the most like herself. Kate had been a rock all their lives but these last four years had been a real struggle.  
  
“I did yes; I did it because I wanted to make your breakfast on your first day.” Kate smiled she loved seeing Chess so happy and knowing that she was a part of this happiness was one of the best things in her opinion. The last four years were rough, but they were stronger together and they would remain that way.  
  
“I love you so much. I’m sorry we have little time this morning, I need to get to class, but I love you and I’ll see you at the lunch later?” Chess grabbed a bagel and kissed Kate softly.  
  
“I love you always and forever. Yeah, I understand, but we also have dinner tonight? I’ll see you at the lunch Riley is making us do for team bonding or whatever she calls it.” Kate kissed Chess back.  
“I want you to say team bonding or whatever you call it to her face later just because the reaction would be so priceless. Riley is our friend, but that was so funny.” Chess laughed on her way out the door.  
  
“I think I will. Love you! Have a great day!” Kate said as Chess was leaving.  


***********  


  
“Farrah! If you’re not up in like 5 mins, you will be late!” Annleigh was running around getting herself ready and noticed Farrah was still sleeping when she had a class in a half hour. Did she party too much the night before? Probably, but she still loved her half-sister a lot and would always be there when she needed her.  
  
“Yes, Annleigh I’m up. By the way, Cairo and Riley called, they can hear you all the way at their apartment on the second floor!!!!” Farrah had a sarcastic way with words but in the end, she meant well. 

To: Annleigh  
From: Riley  
  
Hi, girl! Can you please make sure your sister gets to her first class? I fear she may have partied a little hard last night.  
  
To: Riley  
  
From: Annleigh  
  
Yes! She is up I made sure she was before I left. I’ll see you later.  
  
To: Annleigh  
From: Riley

Ok! I’ll text Eva just to make sure she actually shows up. Yep! See you at lunch later. 

To: Riley  
From: Annleigh  
  
Yeah that is a good idea. 

By this point, Farrah was out of the bathroom. “I’m getting ready. Are you happy now?” 

“I am ecstatic right now. I need to run but I’ll see you at lunch with the team later.” Annleigh smiled.  
  
“Yeah, I should get going as well. I will come to the team bonding lunch or whatever with Eva and Mattie.” Farrah said, as she was moving towards the door for the first class. Farrah skipped classes when she wasn’t feeling like going, but it would get back to her parents if she skipped on her first day, and she definitely didn’t want that.  
“Have fun! I love you!” Annleigh hugged her sister. 

“I love you thanks for making sure I woke up.” Farrah smiled at Annleigh. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a continuation of the first day of college. The chapter opens with the girls in morning classes, Reese and Cairo having a chat about what the plan is for next year. Lunch happens, and the team now knows what Riley was planning all along.

Reese was not sure she wanted to have lunch with the squad. She was all for team building sure, but she wasn’t sure if Riley had another plan up her sleeve. Was this really just lunch, or did she have an alternate agenda like extra practice this year. Reese was not sure she wanted to do the extra practices, but she was sure that she would be happy with the extra bonding time. She knew that Riley could have a plan up her sleeve, and if she did, Cairo would be the one to know more info. The only thing was how, how could she go about asking Cairo for more information without making it seem like she was pressing. If Cairo felt that Riley would find out what she had told Reese, it would be both for their relationship, and for Reese, who was just trying to get as much info as she could, so she could plan her days of practice. 

“Good Morning Cairo!” Reese said as her friend entered their math class. Why they both waited till senior year to take their math class, she didn’t know but she was glad to be here with a friend. Easing into what Reese wanted to know made the most sense, so she was going to go with that. Math was hard, but she was glad that Cairo was here to make things better for her, and to help her if she needed help. 

“Good Morning Reese! How are you doing today?” Cairo and Reese were friends now, they had their struggles in the past, but they talked it out and made sure that they could be friends, as well as work together. They weren’t best friends or anything, but they were good enough friends that if one of them needed help, the other one would help them. Cai took her seat as she was waiting for Reese to answer. She couldn’t tell if something was up or not, but she was sure she would find out eventually. 

“I’m doing well, as good as I can be on the first day of our senior year of college.” Reese was ecstatic that she and Cairo were able to put the past behind them and move on. They were not best friends, and they never would be, they just had too much drama in the past, and it was a miracle they got past it to reach this point in their friendship. “How are you doing?” Casual conversation was another clue in getting the information she wanted, being an intense, or tense conversation, wouldn’t work well because Cairo would see right through that. 

“I just can’t believe it’s the first day of our senior year of college! We made it! At the end of this year, we will graduate, and then we will be off in our real-life jobs or grad school.” Cairo smiled she was just glad she and Reese had made it this far. Before she and Riley started dating, Cai would talk about her feelings for Riley for hours on end, just so she could get her feelings out in the open. Reese was there for her when she needed her, in good times, and in bad ones. “I’m good. I am happy to finally be a senior, and start our lives next year. Cairo thought for a moment about Riley doing more team bonding this year. Was that really what she wanted, or was this an excuse for more practices that Riley tried to pass off as team bonding? “Reese, do you think that the extra team bonding means? Do you think we will really have more team bonding meaning lunches? I feel like Riley means extra practice, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. 

“We did make it, and I can’t wait to start our lives next year. My master’s program is going to be a lot, but I’m glad I’m going to be doing Grad school with Chess. Do you and Riley have any plans for next year yet?” Reese thought it was crazy that they were having this conversation, she had never thought she would having this kind of conversation with Cairo as a friend. The fact that Cai had the same thoughts as Reese as kind of crazy, but it was to be expected. Riley could be underhanded and sneaky about her plans, even to her girlfriend, and that was a bad thing because at times it meant nobody could trust her motives. “I’m not sure what she is thinking, lunches could be good, as we are friends with our teammates, and we could always use the time to work on our relationships as friends.” Reese paused and thought about what she was going to say next, she wasn’t sure what she was going to say, and she needed to choose her words carefully. “On the other hand, I don’t want to do the extra practices either, and she really could be thinking that route, frankly, I think having more practices will lead to us being overworked, and that will make us falter.” 

Riley and Cairo had spent some time over the summer talking about plans for next year, but they hadn’t told everyone else what they planned on doing, so this conversation was good. “Next yeah Riley plans on trying to find a job at a fashion marketing company, or some sort of job in the fashion industry. I think she has dreams of doing fashion marketing, or being a buyer or some kind. Also, she has an idea to join a dance studio or cheer gym, as a coach or a helper. As for me, this year is such a big political year, that I’m sure I will want to find a job in DC, close to the action.” Truthfully, Cairo wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her Political Science Degree, she wanted to be a writer, or political analyst, maybe she would have a radio show or TV show of some kind. Cai loved the world of politics, and she wanted to be as close to the action as she could be. “What about you? I know you said grad school, but what kind of education do you want to go into?” Cairo looked at Reese wondering what she was going to say. 

Reese nodded as Cairo spoke, she knew that Cairo would do fantastic in whatever area of politics she ended up in, she was a great debater, and very analytical. Riley being a general marketing major could go in any direction she wanted, and still do well because when she put her mind to something she achieved it. “That’s great! A fashion job would be great for Riley, as will a dance or cheer related job, keeping herself out there, and not letting go of her hobby.” Reese hoped that Cairo wouldn’t go to DC, she knew that was where the bulk of the action was, but she would miss Cai if she was far away, even if it was just a few hours. “I hope you stay as close as you can. I know that DC is ht political hub, but I would miss you if you moved far away.” Reese thought for a moment before responding, she hadn’t really talked to any of her friends about what kind of education she wanted to go into. “I’m going to school for Elementary Education, I want to teach young kids.” Reese was an only child, she always wanted to teach kids because she had no siblings of her own to teach and mentor. 

Cai saw that their professor entered the room, and before she faced forward for the start of class, she whispered “aw I would miss you as well. I love that you’re going to school for Elementary Education, you’re going to be so fantastic for those kids!” 

“Aw! Thanks Cai I really appreciate that.” Reese beamed and faced forward. 

***  
At 12: 25 PM Eva, Mattie, and Farrah were in the cafeteria so they could get a table for the group. If they hadn’t they might have had to be split between tables, not near each other, which was the exact opposite of what Riley wanted. If this happened, the group would never hear the end of it and they would have to do more of this team bonding as Riley called it. The girls had thought they would all sit as couples, with Reese sitting with Annleigh, because Clarke was not invited to the lunch, this was made clear, but he might try and crash the lunch anyway. 

At 12:30 PM, one by one the girls had come, each with a brisk pace over to the tables once they saw Eva, Mattie, and Farrah. Kate and Chess took seats to the left of Mattie, Farrah was on her right with Annleigh next to her. On the other side of the tables, Riley and Cairo took two seats, Eva and Reese took the last two seats. 

“Thank you all for coming here today! I hope you find this team bonding both productive and informative. Welcome to our 2019-2020 season, and I’m very happy you’re here.” Riley beamed at everyone around the tables. Sure, this was kind of crazy, and they might hate her by the time they were done, but team bonding was a part of the experience. 

“Riley, you played us and how long did you plan on going before you told us this was another way of team bonding? Personally, I think we bond enough.” Farrah had an angry tone, mostly because she should have seen this coming, and yet she never did. She had felt blindsided by this news, even though she knew Riley and the wordplay she used.  
Chess sat with her arms crossed, she was furious as well, but she thought that Farrah and some of the other members could handle this. In her opinion, Chess didn’t think this was needed. They bonded enough at practices and the sleepovers when they could. 

“I knew it! I knew this was another chance for what you call team bonding. Riley, we’re fine we bond enough.” Reese was upset because she just wanted to have lunch with her friends, not talk about cheer, just have fun with each other. Not everyone liked talking about cheer 24/7 like Riley. 

“I think the team bonding lunches are fine. I would just like to see some ground rules placed into effect. We can’t talk about cheer all the time at these lunches, and we don’t have to practice at these lunches right? We can just talk like friends?”

“I’m with Annleigh. I think these could be fun if we don’t talk about cheer the whole time. We need some fun in our lives too. “ Kate was sure the rest of the squad would be shocked she was saying this. After all, Kate only joined in High School because Chess did, and she wanted to be closer to Chess. 

“I’m all for this. It’s a way for everyone to bond and have our chat. I love talking to all of you, and this gives us more of an opportunity to bond. “ Mattie was the youngest and probably the most cheery about this news that was just dropped on them. 

“I love that enthusiasm, Mattie!!!” Riley smiled at her and looked towards the rest of the group. “As for the rest of you, I hope you all know that this will turn out good in the end. The team bonding is not all about cheer, and I think I’ve become more relaxed and nicer to be around over the last four years. We all know what happened all those years ago, but I kind of want to forget about that, and move on.” Riley had gone on a rant because she felt the ones that were not sure about this team bonding were disrespecting her. Riley was angered that her squad still saw her as the girl who didn’t have anything in her life but cheer. 

Cairo didn’t like the way some of the other girls were talking to Riley. She didn’t like the tone they had, and she wanted to make this known to them. “I’m not a fan of the way that Riley went about getting us to come here, just to tell us that she wanted to have more team bonding.” Cairo looked at Riley with a glare, they should have talked about it before Riley came in and started talking about how they needed to bond more. Cai could have helped her come up with a plan so she wasn’t jumped on like this. “On the other hand, I don’t think that Riley deserves to be yelled at by some of you.” Her glare was directed towards Farrah and Reese now. 

“I agree with Cairo. I’m not delighted about these extra meetings for lunch. I feel like it could work if we have some ground rules, like that we can’t talk about cheer for the whole time. Also, we need to be able to eat while we’re bonding here.” Eva wanted to take Cairo’s side here, because she was the one making the most sense. Truthfully, Eva wanted to continue making her point by yelling at Reese and Farrah more. What would that do in the end though? Eva felt it would just make her more upset and worked up in the end. Eva hadn’t known the squad as long as the rest she just didn’t like Farrah because they butted heads. 

“The extra meetings will be fun! We can discuss cheer and other things, and while we are not talking cheer we can talk about life. I understand why some of you might question my motives, and you have every right to. In the past, I was not fully honest with you all here, but my goal is to just have fun at these extra team bonding events. I mean can we even call these team bonding events meetings?!” Riley looked at the rest of the group because she was confused as to why these lunches were suddenly called meetings. 

“You’re right I overreacted because of events in the past, and I should have given you the benefit of the doubt. I’m sorry Riley.” Farrah was being honest here, it was one of the few times when she was sincere, she had been trying to work on being most honest with people around here. Not in a direct sort of way, in a sincere sort of way, she was already direct. 

“Honestly as long as we stick to the ground rules, I think this will be fine and I love this idea. We just need the balance between work discussion, meaning the team and our plans for the next meet, and lively discussion where we talk about what is going on in our lives.” Reese looked at the rest of the group and hoped they would all understand where she was coming from. 

The entire group nodded in agreement and loved that they were all on the same page here. While they all ate also chatted about how their day was going. Some of the seniors were getting sentimental about it being their last year, and plans for next year as they saw them right now. 

“Thanks for coming again! I plan to see everyone here at the same time next week for more bonding yes?” Riley looked at the group hoping to see a nod or something showing that they agreed to the plan. 

With a nod from everyone, they parted ways for afternoon classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! It's been months, and I promise that I will not take so long for the next update. I've had a good time with this fic and I hope to explore more of the ups and downs of the squad's relationship in future chapters. As always, Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy. If you'd like to reach out, you can find me on Tumblr at youcanlolyoucansayohwell.tumblr.com.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I feel head over heels for this fantastic musical about a month ago, and this is the story I've been working on the last few weeks. I'm very happy with this chapter and the directions the story will take. As I said in the summary, this is an everybody lives, so stay tuned for the fluff and the drama, but no characters will die. I had a lot of fun with this and I hope it shows. I would like to work on this and do updates bi weekly, but as we know, life happens. Feel free to reach out on twitter https://twitter.com/classicssonnets or tumblr- sharingthisbeautifulnight.tumblr.com.


End file.
